Phoenix’s wings have been fatally clipped

PHOENIX’S wings have been catastrophically clipped. The Mars lander has lost its solar panels, leading NASA to declare it officially dead.

In recent weeks, NASA has been trying to revive the lander after losing contact in November 2008 as the Martian winter approached. The likelihood of success was slim.

Now images taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show Phoenix is casting a different shadow to when it was last active. Accumulated dust can explain this in part, but mission scientists say the main reason is that the …